SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA men's track & field team will return to postseason action this weekend at the NCAA Championships Preliminary Rounds in Fayetteville, Ark. The three-day meet is scheduled to begin on Thursday at John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas (click here for the complete schedule).
The Roadrunners, fresh of winning the Conference USA Outdoor Championship two weeks ago in Houston, will send a league-leading 13 athletes that will compete in a total of 11 events at the three-day meet (15 entries overall).
Leading the way is the All-America duo of Keyunta Hayes and Richard Garrett Jr.
Hayes comes into the national meet with the country's second-fastest 400-meter hurdles time (49.59), while Garrett Jr. sits in seventh place in the shot put following his C-USA meet-record measurement of 65-9 ¾ (20.06m) two Sundays ago.
Also among the top 20 nationally is fellow All-American Joshua Smith, who currently ranks 13th in the 400m hurdles (50.64).
Garrett Jr., this year's C-USA Field Performer of the Meet, also will compete in the discus two weeks after winning UTSA's first-ever league crown in the event. Meanwhile, Hayes and Smith make up half of the squad's C-USA Champion 1,600m relay quartet that just missed a program record by 36 one-hundredths of a second two weeks ago.
Other Roadrunners scheduled to compete include Andrew Akens (shot put), All-American Keith Benford (high jump), Nate Brunette (100m/200m/400m relay), Jonas Gutierrez (110m hurdles), Christopher Hall (1,600m relay), James Johnson (200m/400m relay), Aaron LeJeune (400m relay), Jurmarcus Shelvin (400m hurdles), Ronson Small (triple jump) and Phil Steinert (hammer).
Each field will be cut in half after the first round and top 12 finishers in the quarterfinals will advance to the NCAA Championships semifinals at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The final two rounds will be contested from June 11-14.